Battle Royale games have exploded in popularity over the past few years, with more options on the market than ever before. If you want to find out how it feels to be number one, here are our top picks for the best Battle Royale games right now.
Having reviewed the latest and greatest games each year, our team knows a thing or two about which titles are worth downloading. Since Battle Royale titles have become more mainstream over the last few years, we thought it was high time to put together a definitive list of all the best titles within the genre.
While the games feature here do fall under the same genre, we’ve made sure to include a solid amount of variety from a wider gameplay perspective. For instance, some titles on this list have a heavy focus on platforming while others require nothing more than for you to pick up the largest gun you can find to take out your opponents.
Every game on this list has been tested by a member of our team for at least a week, giving us a better understanding of how the game functions and how it feels to play. We take a multitude of factors into account, including how attractive the game looks on a graphical and design level, how it balances strategy and action and if the maps feel good to play on repeat.
If you can’t find anything on this list that’s catching your eye right now, then make sure you bookmark this page and come back soon, as we endeavour to update this list every time we review another fantastic Battle Royale title.
We also have plenty of other round-ups that you can check out if you’re willing to broaden your horizons, such as the best games overall. If you happen to own more than one gaming device, then make sure you take a look at our best PS4 games, best PS5 games, best Xbox Series X/S games, best PC games and best Switch games lists for an even deeper look at what brilliant games are available right now.
Best battle royale games at a glance
How we test
We play every game we review through to the end, outside of certain exceptions where getting 100% completion, like Skyrim, is close to impossible to do. When we don’t fully finish a game before reviewing it we will always alert the reader.
Apex Legends
Best FPS Battle Royale
Pros
- Brutal and satisfying gunplay
- Exploration and resource management is hugely satisfying
- Movement is some of the genre’s finest
- Battle Pass offers so much worthwhile content
Cons
- Aesthetic isn’t hugely memorable
If it’s a properly immersive battle royale shooter you’re after with a first-person perspective, the excellent free-to-play Apex Legends should be top of your list for the best battle royale games.
There are loads of different ways to play, all thanks to the variety of characters on offer. There’s also a great selection of weapons, from shotgun pistols to crossbows, all of which we found to feel solid and offer varying strategies.
Apex Legends has three different battle royale maps that rotate once every 60 or 90 minutes – with eleven maps available in total – each seeing minor alterations once a new season begins. The maps feature different biomes and climates for you to fight in, as well as a range of different horizontal and vertical spaces, which should help to offer a unique playing experience. There are additional maps for PvP arena mode too, for whenever you’ve grown tired of the expansive open-world ventures.
We also found the progression system to be especially good, with plenty of rewards – such as character skins and new weapons – coming naturally as you play, although a battle pass may be worthwhile for unlocking even rarer loot if you’re playing on a rather regular basis.
Reviewer: Jade King
Full review: Apex Legends review
Fortnite
Best third-person shooter Battle Royale
Pros
- The world is engrossing and constantly evolving
- A striking aesthetic and sense of atmosphere
- Gunplay and building are combined creatively
- Progression system is constantly rewarding
Cons
- Hardly subtle when taking ideas from other games
- Combat isn’t the genre’s strongest at all
- Some strange technical problems on certain platforms
If you’d prefer a third-person shooter when diving into the battle royale experience, then Fortnite is one of the best games within the genre and one of the most well-known even outside of the gaming community.
Fortnite offers a shedload of different modes and playstyles to choose from. This results in a fun and engaging experience, whether you wish to go alone, in a team of two or have an entire merry band of players to help you along to victory.
The game currently sits in its fourth chapter, with the fifth chapter coming up later this year. It comes with three modes: Solo, Duos and Trios. Since the game is free to play you are not rewarded massively for playing, the progression system is still more than decent. There is the option to invest and go in for a Battle Pass – which costs 950 V-Bucks or around £6.49/$9.90 – which may be worthwhile if you are a regular player.
It’s also worth noting how Fortnite pushes the boundaries when it comes to offering virtual events such as concerts, which themselves can draw in millions of players, as well as some license agreements with Marvel, DC and Star Wars for instance, as well as Premier League football clubs too.
Reviewer: Jade King
Full review: Fortnite review
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
Best platformer Battle Royale
Pros
- It’s such a simple premise executed brilliantly
- Fun both alone and with a group of friends
- Sessions are short, sweet and so satisfying to play
- Progression model has plenty of potential for expansion
Cons
- Team games are a mixed bag and break up the flow
- Spectator mode is a little barebones right now
Battle royale games can come in all shapes and sizes, and don’t always involve battling against people with guns. Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout instead sees a large group of playful-looking characters compete in party games in order to be the last one standing.
The gameplay is fantastically hectic and fast-paced, and we found it to be an entertaining title to get stuck into. It usually involves dodging moving objects and navigating precarious obstacles.
Not all of the mini-games are perfect, but given the amount of fun on offer, it’s easier to look past their minor imperfections. More mini-games are added every season – with the game currently on Season 4: Creative Construction – giving players even more mini-games to master. This also ensures that even if you don’t love a select few mini-games, plenty more will always be available.
You’ve also got plenty of customisable skins that you can either unlock or pay for, letting you roam obstacle courses dressed as a duck, dinosaur or even a hot dog.
Reviewer: Jade King
Full review: Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout review
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
Best for serious shooting
Pros
- Brilliantly balanced strategy and action
- New maps up the pace
- Incredible suspense and tension
- More polished and stable than the original release
Cons
- Xbox One version still lags behind
- Not the most immediately fun Battle Royale
Moving from the zany to the serious brings us to one of the original battle royale titles, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, or PUBG for short.
It’s a much more strategic and gritty battle royale title than some of the others on this list, with the beauty of PUBG not only being the combat but the exploration and the process of looting buildings to grab the best weapons so you’re best prepared to take on the other 99 players dotted across the map. The main tactic for a game of PUBG isn’t to kill as many people as you can, but rather not be killed for as long as possible; it’s this element that sets it apart from other gritty shooters like those found in the Call of Duty or Counter-Strike series.
The maps themselves aren’t merely cosmetic and each one has its own unique qualities which affect the way in which you play the game. For instance, the original Soviet-style island, Erangel, provides the traditional experience, while Miramar, the Central American desert map, offers more challenging terrain, with dense urban areas and wide empty expanses of land where you’re at the mercy of snipers. It’s this variety that really keeps PUBG interesting.
PUBG looks fantastic, offering polished visuals and a certain level of believability and realism that the more cartoon and animated battle royale games simply can’t compete with.
Reviewer: Stuart Andrews
Full review: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds review
Call of Duty: Warzone
Best for Call of Duty fans
Pros
- The weapons feel incredible
- Gulag allows for some very tense comebacks
- Buy Stations help mix up pace and playstyles
Cons
- The map is incredibly bland
- Lacks the personality of Apex Legends and Blackout
Call Of Duty: Warzone is one of the very best battle royale games for those who are fans of the Call of Duty series and want to transport themselves into a large-scale battle arena.
Compared to other battle royale games, it offers up intriguing gameplay features, such as the Gulag. Normally in a battle royale game, it’s game over once you die. In Warzone though, the Gulag presents the opportunity for you to fight for your place to respawn against one other enemy. It’s a very clever concept and unlike any other battle royales out there, provides the same tension as when you’re fighting for the win.
A total player count of 150 is positively massive, as is the large map where you get to duke it our against everyone else. Its brutalist art style admittedly looks a little boring compared to the vibrant, cartoony personality of the likes of Fortnite or Apex Legends, but that only makes this shooter feel a little more serious.
The actual gunplay is brilliant, with each gun feeling different to the next. We particularly enjoyed using a light machine gun in fights given the sheer firepower on offer, although their heavier nature means you can turn into a sitting duck. The ability to redeploy your parachute is especially handy, meaning you can traverse the map from above and try your best to avoid those on the ground.
It’s currently in the Warzone 2.0 phase, which brought the title to platforms like the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Warzone can be played in native resolutions on these platforms, which allows for improved performance and resolution that players have long been waiting for.
Reviewer: Jason Coles
Full review: Call Of Duty Warzone review
FAQs
Battle royale games are so popular because of the varied gameplay, the large player counts, and the ease of playing with friends or strangers, as well as the satisfying feeling of winning, of course.
While the peak player numbers associated with PUBG may have decreased over the last few years, there are still several hundred thousand players playing the game each month.
This arguably depends on the type of battle royale experience you’re after. PUBG offers a realistic, gritty and especially strategic style of gameplay, while Apex Legends offers more of a cartoonish art style with gameplay that’s also immersive, given it has a first-person perspective.
